


remind me

by HomuraBakura



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Late Night Conversations, M/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 03:38:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13895433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomuraBakura/pseuds/HomuraBakura
Summary: sometimes the nightmares cling to reality, and it's hard to remember what did and didn't actually happen





	remind me

He waited, staring at the screen. He held his breath, but he wasn't thinking about it. Would Reiji actually call him? He had been surprised to see the message blinking on his phone when he rolled his eyes over to check the time. Reiji texted him often, after all, coordinating lessons that Yuya assisted him with at LDS, or letting him know about exhibition matches or tournaments or just checking in, even. But this had been the first late night text Yuya had ever gotten from him, and he... He bit his lip.

_Please call._

The phone buzzed against his hand and he actually dropped it from the surprise. Quickly, he scooped it off the pillow and hit accept, pushing it against his ear.

“Reiji?”

For a moment, there was only a soft panting on the other end, someone who was trying desperately to get their air under control and not quite managing.

“Yuya,” Reiji finally responded, in the tightest, most clipped voice Yuya had heard out of him in months. Yuya's heart battered against his ribs for a moment and he sat up, readjusting his grip on the phone.

“Are you okay?” he said. “Hey....hey, try to breathe, okay?”

“I...right,” Reiji said. The clipped tone vanished and instead he just sounded _exhausted_. Yuya heard him swallowing against the receiver. When he spoke again, his voice sounded thin and choked. “You're...all right, right?”

“I'm fine, I'm more worried about you,” Yuya said. “Do you need to talk?”

“Yuya, please, I just need you to keep talking for a moment. I need to remind myself that I'm actually hearing you and I'm not imagining things. You're alive, right? You're still here, aren't you?”

Yuya's heart tremored like his fingers. What was going on?? What was wrong with Reiji??

He swallowed and tried to keep his voice steady.

“Right, okay. It's okay, I really am here, and I'm on the other end of the line, okay? Nothing's wrong with me, I'm a-okay. Right as rain. Nothing's wrong, I promise, I'm real.”

Reiji drew in a shuddery breath on the other end.

“I...I'm all right,” he whispered, and he still sounded so thin and exhausted that Yuya leaned forward as though Reiji were actually there for him to touch. “I'm all right...thank you, Yuya...”

“What happened?” Yuya said before he thought about it. “I mean...if you can talk about it.”

He heard another faint sigh. The faint click of someone opening or closing a pair of glasses.

“I had....I had a nightmare.”

“I'm sorry.”

He heard Reiji lick his lips.

“Yesterday I helped the new City Council in disposing of Roger's notes and equipment. I found his notes about you.”

Yuya felt his throat close and he put a hand on his stomach to push down the twist there.

“I dreamed I lost you there. That I was locked in the room with the Council again and Roger was playing the surgery on all the screens and no matter how many times I threw myself against the doors they wouldn't open.”

“Reiji,” Yuya whispered.

“I couldn't remember what actually happened when I woke up. I thought you were gone. I keep having dreams like this. Where something goes wrong and I lose you, or someone else, because I wasn't strong enough or fast enough.”

“I'm here, Reiji,” Yuya whispered, his hand shaking in his lap now. How long had Reiji been dealing with this? “I'm here, we're in the good ending, I promise.”

“But it could have not been, Yuya,” Reiji said. His voice cracked towards the end. “I left you there. I knew he had taken you and I didn't do anything. I didn't come for you.”

“There wasn't anything you could have done, Reiji, you were doing everything you could.”

“Did I?” Reiji said. “Did I? Did I...did I really do what I should have done? I waited so long to act, Yuya. A few moments longer and you could have been dead. Any of you could have been dead. I took you to _war_.”

Yuya pressed the phone harder to his ear as though that would transfer the pressure to Reiji. He wished he could see him in front of him.

“We're alive, Reiji,” he said. “And we're alive because you fought for us. Because you did everything you possibly could to protect what was important.”

He heard the softest of hiccups and gasps on the other end. Reiji was crying. Yuya thought he was going to cry too.

“We're all okay, Reiji,” he said again. “We're all here. You didn't fail. I trusted you with my life and I won't ever, _ever_ , regret that decision.”

Reiji didn't seem to be able to do more than cry softly. Yuya pressed the phone to his ear and kept talking, low and soft, whatever he could think of.

“Don't hate yourself, Reiji, please,” he whispered. “We made it. We _all_ made it.”

“Sometimes I forget,” Reiji gasped softly.

Yuya closed his eyes and tried to imagine that Reiji was within reach, reaching for a hand that wasn't there.

“Then I'll remind you. As many times as it takes.”

 


End file.
